Changes to the ways in which the Food and Drug Administration plans to regulate vaccines represent a threat to effective and available vaccines and public health, 12 former commissioners wrote Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine .

The changes, as described in a leaked memo by Vinay Prasad, the agency’s top regulator of vaccines, “will upend core policies governing vaccine development and updates,” the former commissioners wrote in the piece, a striking show of unanimity among those who have served in both Republican and Democratic administrations.

“If the goal is to rebuild confidence, the answer is not to toss aside the basic rules of science, stifle argument and oversight, or supplant expert scientific inquiry for the unilateral decision making of a few individuals,” the

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